KH: Birth By Sleep Final Mix – ‘Secrets’ Interview

Rebirth Wings has posted an interview of Tetsuya Nomura conducted by Degenki magazine and he reveals a lot of information regarding the decision to release the Final Mix of Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, as well as information regarding the “Armor of the Master” and “No Heart” boss battles and even details about the additional “Secret Episode”!

***Please be aware of spoilers!***

The interview has been translated courtesy of Heartstation.org:

– Development deadline for KHBbSFM has closed. They had to adjust the release date to weave between the titles that go on sale around New Year’s, which was very difficult. There are many KH fans who also enjoy the English voices. This title may be on a handheld, but because it was fully voiced from the outset, they decided to release an English voiced version. He thinks that amongst the three protagonists, Ven and Aqua’s voices sound close to the Japanese ones, so it won’t feel weird. Aqua’s Japanese voice actor Ms Toyoguchi herself went to far to say they were similar.

– They are tuning (No Heart) into a rather strong enemy, to make even those who played the previous title feel chewed out.

They went to the trouble of adding a boss, so it would be a waste to make it easy to defeat.

“I thought that the fans would definitely like to try battling this thing.”

However, it’s pretty tough alone, so it’s better to challenge him when you have three people. There are many subtle alterations added here and there between No Heart’s armour and Xemnas’ armour in KH2. They couldn’t use the giant cape from Xemnas’ armour this time.

Xemnas stayed seated, but No Heart stands up somewhere along the way, so be careful. After standing up, No Heart moves around a lot.

– The staff originally said that they wanted to make No Heart and Armour of the Master opponents with cutscenes like the Mystery Man, but it was rejected in order to not take away from the consistency of the plot.

Their strength and abilities are the same as the real ones, but the two in armour are handled entirely as revived data, and exist separately from the original plot.

If the bosses were to be ranked according to strength, it would go: Vanitas Sentiment < Mystery Man < Armour of the Master < No Heart. The two in armour in particular are at a strength that assumes you’re fighting with three characters, so they won’t go down easily.

-The additional Secret Episode is the continuation of the Last Episode of the previous title. Unlike the secret movies and secret cutscenes up until now, you progress through it playing as the characters yourself.

Really wanted the players to play the episode, he lowered the hurdles needed to unlock it. Beginner mode works too, and he wants everyone to play it.

“As always, the final impact expands.”

The additional episode is Aqua’s story. After falling into the Realm of Darkness, ten years pass before she meets the black coated person on the beach, and this depicts what happened after she fell into the Realm of Darkness.

After the events of the Secret Episode, important events that connect to the first KH title occur.

“This is how the story of this series is connected in so many places.”

The additional secret episode is voiced in Japanese. As in KH2FM+, you can switch between English and Japanese in the theatre for all except for the Secret Episode, which only has Japanese voices.

-As for other additions, in Ven’s story there is a scene right after his first meeting with Vanitas in which he reminisces. It was added for the North American version. It expands on why Ven adores Terra so much. It was actually supposed to go into the previous version, but it was removed for various reasons and now has been restored.

– When thinking of elements to add to the Japanese version, they wanted to make a huge enemy from a Disney work to appear. They made Ice Titan appear in the past, so the idea to have another Titan came up, but he wanted something with a twist. The Osaka development team proposed Monstro, and and they decided to use that.

-So many original features added to the Japanese version, and he wants you to by all means play it and experience it for yourself. In particular, the Secret Episode, which is exclusive to the FM version, is not to be missed. Also, he thinks you will be very satisfied with the English voices in the FM. The original characters such as the three protagonists, Eraqus and Xehanort are played by foreign actors and actresses, and he wants you to be full of anticipation.